It’s been too long since I joined forces with my dear friend Joyce Lamb at USA Today’s Happy Ever After. So when she asked a bunch of us to contribute to the HEA Valentine’s Day Feature Post, our subsequent emails led to Joyce saying, “You’ve got a new book coming out? Well, let’s get Down & Dirty!”

This was one of those really fun interviews to do. Not because the answers lent themselves to being so short, but because thinking about them at all made for a really fun time. And as someone who has been on the asking end of as least as many interview questions I’ve answered, I can tell you that an interview where the subject has FUN is one that is definitely worth reading.

Here’s hoping that my Down & Dirty answers are a bright spot to your day today!

There are authors who don’t like interview questions. I suppose that, someday, I might get sick of them too. Maybe I’ve just always liked essay questions–maybe I just love talking about myself (and my books!).

The best part about doing interviews is when questions come along that are just REALLY FUN TO ANSWER.

I have to say, Emma’s questions for me for my Writer’s Voice Interview today were just that awesome. It was tough to pick a few from her list, but there are only so many hours in the day, you know?

Much to my dismay (and yours, I know), ENCHANTED won’t be out in stores until May 8th of 2012. It seems like a long time to wait, doesn’t it?

Of course, in this day and age, we have a lot of other ways to get our fix for books we can’t wait to read (like Tamora Pierce’s and Robin McKinley’s next books).

If you can’t wait to read ENCHANTED, you can always read “The Unicorn Hunter,” which is the backstory for the character Ashes-on-the-Wind. Who is Ashes? Well, she doesn’t appear in ENCHANTED, but her story is integral to the Woodcutter Universe. Which means you just have to pick up John Skipp’s DEMONS anthology and find out!

You can also go onto Goodreads and click on ENCHANTED as a book you’d like to read. My friend (fellow author Cassie Alexander) brought this to my attention last week. I checked, and as of this morning, 546 people have marked ENCHANTED as to-read! I have to say, this far away from the release date, I was floored by the response. So was my publisher. So THANKS , GUYS! YOU ROCK!

The third thing is one of my favorite places to play: Twitter! Leanna was telling me about the random giveaways she does when she reaches certain landmarks of followers…I think this is a great idea! I’m almost to 1900 followers right now — when I reach2000, I’ll give away a print collection of my short stories. How does that sound? But you must be following me on Twitter to enter! Look for the tweet to RT…I’ll be posting it soon!

* The winner of the March 28th Recipe Blog contest is Sandra Davis! Sandra’s name will go into the hat with all the rest of March’s winners of the Fool for Romance contest. If her name is drawn there as well, she could win a virtual boatload of awesome prizes, including a Kindle and a D-H prize pack that includes a Dark-Hunter Companion signed by both me and Sherri. Congrats, Sandra!

* AlphaOops: H is for Halloween is still on sale at Amazon for only $8.71 — that’s 46% off, which is a better discount than I can get straight from the publisher. I think I have an idea why this strange thing is occurring…which I’ll explain at length later. For now, if you (or your library) doesn’t have a copy of this fabulous, critically-acclaimed picture book, now’s the time to pick one (or several – they make great gifts!) up.

* Speaking of…AlphaOops was recently mentioned in the review of another alphabet book on ParentDish.com. In the review, A is for Zebra was compared to AlphaOops, the latter of which was referred to as a “classic.”Which makes me squee more than a little bit. I am such a Diva. A Classic Dr. Seuss Diva.

Obviously, my favorite commercial of Superbowl Sunday was Lord Vader’s VW. I was a bit gutted when I realized they chopped the thing to fit it in…if you only saw it last night, you should really watch the Director’s Cut on YouTube. It’s easy to find — chances are, 42 of your friends already posted it to their Facebook walls (including me).

There were a few others that made me chuckle, a few that made me groan (Eminem, really? Saturns were “Imported from Tennessee” long before your little “Imported from Detroit” gimmick), and some that just flat out disgusted me (I may never eat another Dorito again).

Here is my second-favorite commercial of Superbowl Sunday. Who knew this town had a volcano?

As you lovely folks may or may not know, the famous and lovable Fairy Godboyfriend (who sometimes answers to “Joe” or “Tomo”), used to have a very popular site on teh intarwebs known as Tomoview. What MST3K did for horrible movies, Joe did for horrible literature. (Though calling it “literature” is kind of a stretch.) Think slush pile horror stories…to the billionth degree.

Those not familiar with Joe’s site need to know: Most of the titles are in the horror genre. Not all subjectmatter is appropriate for all ages (or appropriate for some people in general). You may not enjoy Joe’s caustic sense of humor, and that’s okay. These are books published by actual people — both small press and large (but usually small). They are for put up sale and therefore public consumption. Joe’s site is living proof that you have no say over your baby once you put it out there. All its great parts and horrible parts are yours to own up to.

While I only review books that I enjoy on IGMS, Joe will only make comments on titles that stink…because they are funny. (I kind of hope he posts his secret review of the first chapter of Snooki’s book, because it was HILARIOUS.)

As a rule, I do not like laughing at people. But Joe makes me laugh and remember the very high standards to which I hold both myself and my writing.

Im here in the at& t store with Gypsy and the kids, who are getting new phones before the blizzard. Of course, we still have to do Wal Mart and the grocery store…this ought to be fun! (I’m just glad Gypsy’s driving.).

While I’m waiting I figured I’d download the WordPress app for the phone and give it a test run. So…hello, world! Wish us a safe trip home.